


like a ghost you linger

by girlsarewolves



Category: Skinwalkers (2006)
Genre: Cannibalism, Character Death, Murder, Post Movie, there's a dead body with a gaping chest wound in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-25
Updated: 2014-05-25
Packaged: 2018-01-26 10:23:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1684901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlsarewolves/pseuds/girlsarewolves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a new moon tonight. A new cycle starting. The sky seems so empty, and the stars seem farther away.</p>
<p>He looks up at them; not down at the brown eyes fixed on him. He knows they are empty like the sky, like something important is missing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	like a ghost you linger

**Author's Note:**

> Content warnings for mentions of cannibalism and the murder of a woman as well was a minor reference to past killings, plus major character death.

* * *

( _i can still taste your blood in my mouth._ )

It's a new moon tonight. A new cycle starting. The sky seems so empty, and the stars seem farther away.

He looks up at them; not down at the brown eyes fixed on him. He knows they are empty like the sky, like something important is missing.

( _i can still feel your hands on my body._ )

She had a name, but he didn't catch it. She has a family, but he didn't care. She was young, but he didn't walk away.

It's cold in the woods. It's damp all the way down to his bones.

He pays no mind to the way his muscles burn as he digs. It's almost familiar; like an imitation of something that he's missing. He savors the strain.

( _i can still see your face hovering above mine._ )

There's blood on his hands, in his mouth. There's a sick feeling in his gut, and bile is rushing up. He swallows it down.

When there's a hole in the ground to welcome her down, he finally looks at her again. There's something missing; a hole in her that will never be filled.

He made it sloppy, but a knife isn't claws, and the wound in her chest looks too precise.

There's a gurgling in his stomach like her heart trying to come up, trying to return to the body he stole it from.

( _i can still hear your voice in my ear._ )

_Click._

He knows the sound of a gun cocking. He knows the feel of a barrel against the back of his neck, right at the base of his spine.

"Hello, Rachel."

The girl's eyes are fixed on him still; glassy and wide and empty. Something important is missing, but they're still accusatory.

It had never bothered him before. It doesn't bother him anymore.

( _i can still smell your hair, my nose pressed to the back of your skull while you slept._ )

"Why? Just tell me that."

It's a new moon tonight, but it doesn't matter. He'd feel this empty even if it was full, hanging low and yellow in the sky.

"You don't really want me to answer that."

The gun presses harder against him.

"You don't have a clue what I want."

He smiles; there's a flicker of something. An echo of emotion. Amusement, he thinks. He doesn't, because he doesn't know her anymore and doesn't want to. He doesn't know. He doesn't care.

She wanted him, he knows that. She wanted him until he gave her too many reasons to stop.

He's left about six in other graves now.

( _i can still remember the hard curve of your lips when you smiled, and the rough way you would grab me just to remind yourself i was yours.)_

"Because I couldn't kill you," he tells her calmly, waiting for the shot or the shouts or whatever emotional reaction is coming. 

It's quiet for a beat.

She's shaking behind him, he catches the shuddering breaths she's taking and can feel the waver in her grip on the gun.

"We were a family again."

( _i can still see the betrayal on your face; hear the hurt in your voice. i can still smell your confusion, your want, your anger, your hate._ )

He turns around to see the hurt and the anger and the confusion and the betrayal in this woman's face. He doesn't mind the gun at his throat.

"You aren't my family."

She narrows her eyes. She's stronger now than he ever thought she could be. She's human, but nothing's missing anymore. Everything she really needs, everything that's important, it's there.

( _i can still remember how beautiful you were when you shifted._ )

She laughs then. A harsh, bitter sound. She spits on him.

"The funny thing is, every time you find someone who looks like me to kill? You find someone who reminds you of her, too."

( _i can still remember how beautiful you were when you came._ )

He hardens then; feels phantoms of spite, of rage, of disgust. His hands tighten on the handle of the shovel; he knows he'll be dead before he hits her.

There are more ways to cause harm than physical attacks.

"You think I was with her because she reminded me of you? Maybe it was the other way around. Maybe I thought you were what I wanted, but found you wanting. Maybe she was the complete, the perfection."

And it works, because it's true. It hits her hard, and the gun lowers, aiming at his chest. At the empty core of him.

( _i can still hear the sound you made when you died._ )

She swallows, closes her eyes. She slips up sometimes when she's close to him.

He doesn't take advantage this time. Part of him can't; part of him thinks of everything he's destroyed, and for what? He failed.

What's the point?

It's a new moon tonight. A new cycle starting.

"Then burn in hell with her."

When she pulls the trigger, it's the first real thing he's felt in months.

( _i can still taste your blood in my mouth._ )

The hole he dug in the earth welcomes him, and there's something wet and warm and coppery in his mouth.

The empty sky hovers overhead. The stars fade out.

Varek feels whole with the last breath he takes.

**Author's Note:**

> Caleb becoming a serial killer after becoming human is something I've toyed with for a while. I actually have an idea for a longer fic that goes into the idea more, but I don't know when or if I'll write it. So I decided to try something short for now.


End file.
